


Firsts and Fireworks

by Owl_by_Night



Category: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (TV), Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, University
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-06
Updated: 2016-11-06
Packaged: 2018-08-29 09:43:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8484538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Owl_by_Night/pseuds/Owl_by_Night
Summary: At the very beginning of their relationship, Will and Colley watch fireworks and go home together for the first time.  Set in the 'Baking AU' universe.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fengirl88](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fengirl88/gifts).



> This fic follows directly after The Joy of Baking (Chapter 10 of The Twelve Days of JSAMN Christmas) and is in the same universe as Chapter 7 of the same and Chapter 6 of Stories from Tumblr.

There's the smell of gunpowder in the air, and a haze of bonfire smoke drifting towards them. In the flashes of red, green, gold, Will's face is a picture of rapt enjoyment.  He hasn’t been to the department’s annual firework display before, and it is a good one, particularly for a display set up by enthusiastic amateurs (chemistry students, Bell had sighed looking at Jon, always blowing things up). 

As another cluster of fireworks fill the sky with sparks, Colley wraps his arms tightly around Will from behind, snuggling his cold cheek against the warmth of his scarf. Will smells of warm skin, wool and cigarettes. The bang of rockets thumps through the air followed by a sharp crackle as they burst into smaller scattered lights and Will leans back against him with a smile that makes Colley forget all about November and Guy Fawkes. 

Jon is watching the two of them win a knowing smirk but Colley doesn't care. The last couple of weeks, since that night when Will came round and found Colley making cakes, have been the best weeks of his life so far. He's giddy with it. Dazed by days of meeting up for coffee, of dinner out and the cinema, and curling up together to watch TV with the others, of kissing and holding hands and feeling like he's walking on air. 

When the display ends they share out the ginger cake and toffee apple slices Colley brought with him and watch the bonfire blaze.  It flares against the night sky as the guy falls from his place on the top of the stack.  The girls brought cider.  Will tastes like sweet apple, his lips sticky, and Colley wants nothing more than to get away from all these people and take him home. 

"Are you cold?" he asks. 

"Not really, but I don't mind going."  Will smiles a smile that is warm with promise, which Colley hopes means they have had the same idea, and they make their excuses to the others. Someone, probably Emma, wolf whistles at them as they leave. Will makes a rude gesture in return. 

Away from the field where they had the fireworks it grows suddenly quiet. The night is still and dark in comparison to the firelight.  One of the first frosts of the year is already sparkling on the pavement.  The two of them tramp back to Colley’s house together by torch light, kicking through the drifts of leaves. Will hunches his shoulders against the cold: too cool for a proper jacket.  Colley, in his sensible wool coat, rolls his eyes a bit and tucks an arm around him.  

Back at Colley's house they shed layers of clothes in the dim hall, stumbling against one another as they try to kick off their boots, cold hands fumbling with laces.  Will hops on one foot, laughing when Colley steadies him. After the dark of the walk home putting on the lights seems unnecessary. Will kisses him, still standing in the dark hall, his cold hands in Colley's hair.  They part, smiling foolishly at one another in the joyful newness of it all. 

"Hot chocolate?" Colley asks, as if there's any answer but yes. He makes it with cinnamon, stirring the milk over the stove instead of sticking it in the microwave. Doing it properly, his mother's voice says. If feels good to do this for someone else: if it was just for himself he wouldn't bother. 

In the tiny living room, Will switches on the fairy lights Colley’s housemates have fixed along one wall and they curl up together in the semi darkness.  Outside they can still hear the faint bangs and pops of distant fireworks.  Will wriggles until he's between Colley's legs, leaning back against his chest. The sofa is lumpy and old, and it's not exactly a comfortable position to sit in (not quite enough room for his legs) but Colley's too damn happy to care.

He sneaks a hand under Will's t-shirt.  He feels too thin in Colley's opinion, too many bones under the skin. It gives Colley the sudden desire to feed him cake.  He’s just thinking about fetching the cake tin from the kitchen when Will twists in his arms, tilting his head round for a kiss.  One kiss becomes two, becomes kisses.  The remaining hot chocolate goes cold in the mugs. 

Will is fucking gorgeous like this: kneeling between Colley’s thighs, all red mouth and smudged eyeliner, hard cock sharply outlined against his skinny jeans. Colley, in his worn denim and soft t-shirt which doesn't cling anywhere, is struck again by the difference between them. The feeling of disbelief that Will is even interested in him still lingers at times.  He runs his thumb very deliberately over the line of Will's cock, to see him bite his lip and gasp, feeling giddy at the thought that he can provoke the reaction. Will leans down and kisses him, fiercer than before.  

"Can I stay tonight?" he asks. 

Colley can only think of one answer, and that answer is yes. 

"Bed," he says, struggling up from the sofa and tugging Will after him towards the bedroom. 

 

The move from sofa to bedroom changes things somehow. Maybe it's the cold of the room and the chilled bedsheets, or the glare of the bedside lamp (the same one Colley has had on his bedside table for _years_ ) but it makes them pause.  Will perches on the edge of the bed and Colley stands in front of him, fidgeting with the hem of his jumper and not really sure what to do. It occurs to him that Will is probably a lot more knowledgeable about this kind of thing, and the faint fear of ridicule begins to prickle at the back of his neck. 

Colley's not completely inexperienced. He lost his virginity to a girl called Flora in the sixth form, in a slightly tipsy spirit of scientific enquiry. They had tried it, tried it again sober, and decided by mutual and amicable agreement to stop there. Then there had been Fitz, and an altogether less practical kind of affair, where feelings were hurt on both sides and Colley worked out why relationships begun in freshers week are usually a bad idea.  Faced with Will, who is unquestionably more attractive than Colley, more confident, more experienced, more _everything_ , he feels inadequate. Will himself looks doubtful and with a cold, slightly sick feeling in his stomach, Colley wonders if he has changed his mind.  

"I'm sorry, I don't... you were probably expecting me to be..." he stops, unsure whether the words he wants next are 'better at this' or 'have a clue what I'm doing'. 

"I thought..." Will begins, then cuts himself off. 

"What?"

"I thought you'd... I thought you'd have done this before."  

"I have!  Ok, I'm not the most… but I have... I'm not…” Colley is probably scarlet now.  Just the thing to make him more attractive no doubt and he can’t even bring himself to say the word virgin, not in front of Will De Lancey. 

"No, I know, but... oh Jesus..." Will buries his head in his hands, tousling his hair further, "I know you aren't, but I am." 

Colley stares at him. For a minute it doesn't even make sense. 

"Well say something then," Will snaps. 

"You can't be," Colley says flatly.  It makes no sense. He knows Will has slept with other men.  He's always talking about it, always the one with some hint of a relationship going on. "Not tonight," he hears Will say in his smuggest tones, "I'm _busy_ ". Busy said with a raised eyebrow: implied business of a horizontal nature.  But then... it always is implied, isn't it? Busy elsewhere. He's spent enough time flirting with guys in clubs on nights out, but he's usually still there when they go home, and he’s never brought anyone with them. Colley just always assumed...

Will is staring fixedly at the carpet, his shoulders hunched and miserable. 

"Really?” Colley finds himself saying, “I mean, I thought..."

"Oh fuck off. Have a laugh if you want. I don't care. Just fuck off."  Will twitches away from him, rolling over until he's lying in a huddled ball on the far side of Colley's bed. 

Shit. 

"Will?"  

Will doesn't answer. His shoulder twitches higher around his ears and Colley wishes he hadn’t said anything.  He knows Will minds what people think, more than Colley ever has. 

"Will?" he tries again, softer this time.  He puts a hand on Will's shoulder but he pulls away.

"Sod off." 

Colley is torn between wanting to give him a shake for making such a fuss over his hurt pride and wanting to wrap him up safe in his arms. He does the latter, curling behind Will on the narrow bed and putting his arm around him, tucking his knees in so the two of them are pressed together along the length of their bodies. Will’s skin is cold to the touch: it isn’t exactly warm in here.  He presses a very gentle kiss to the skin of Will's shoulder, just where the neck of his t-shirt ends. 

"Did you think I'd care?" he asks quietly. 

"I thought you did." 

"Not particularly. Although I wish you'd said something sooner." 

Will says nothing. 

"You are such an idiot. You know that right? Were you just going to sleep with me and then tell me after? Or never?" He runs a hand down Will's cold arm with his warm hand. 

"You know what everyone thinks of me.  I thought you were disappointed that I’m not." 

"I know, but that's everyone. This is me. I know you bake cakes and drink tea. Your reputation was basically ruined from that moment." 

"Oh fuck off," Will says, but there's the beginnings of a smile in his voice. 

"I really don't care. Although I should warn you, the first girl I slept with. Actually, the only girl I slept with, she’s decided she prefers girls now. So you know, I could be _rubbish_. I could ruin your sexuality altogether." 

He says it in a thoughtful tone, hoping to get a smile.  Will laughs then, a bit reluctantly but still a laugh. 

"You're ridiculous."

"I know. I am. And so are you." Colley links his fingers with Will and squeezes.  "So where were you then, when we thought you were off out with men so out of our league you wouldn't even introduce us?"

Will sighs, but he leans back a little closer against Colley's chest so he thinks he's got away with it.  

"Working, mostly, uni work" he says. 

"Really?  All this time I think you've got the sort of social life I couldn't hope to compete with, and you've been in the library?"

"Some of us," Will says with an elbow to Colley's ribs, "are trying to get firsts. I do have to work some time you know."  

"Oh my God," Colley finds himself saying in surprise, “you have hidden depths, don't you? Very well hidden, and probably very geeky hidden depths." 

"I do not!" Will elbows him again, but he's smiling.  

"You do, you absolutely do. In the library... You are such a geek. It's fantastic. You are such a geek.  I bet you even watch Star Trek.  You probably have opinions about the captains, you..."

He stops, looking at Will's suddenly extremely shifty expression.  

"Seriously?"

"I'm saying nothing," Will says with a pout. 

"You like Star Trek? Mr I'm cooler than anyone else likes Star Trek? You're fucking adorable, you know that right?" 

“I am not fucking adorable!  Don’t you dare!”  Will is pink faced and outraged and Colley, feeling suddenly light hearted, tickles him.  Will laughs and squirms, calls him a bastard, and then they are kissing again, hands roaming for different reasons. Will moves closer until they are grinding against each other and he is gasping against Colley's mouth. 

"Do you think I'm stupid?"  Will pulls back suddenly. 

"What?" It takes Colley a moment to remember what they were even talking about.  Will is very, very distracting when he wants to be. 

"For pretending, for letting other people think what they think. Do you think it's stupid?  I mean, it's not really pretending. It’s just..." 

Colley thinks before he speaks, more aware of the need to tread carefully than he was earlier. 

"I know. And I don't. There’s just more to you than meets the eye, right? More things to know about you if you'll let me. And I do want you to." Colley pushes a strand of Will's hair behind his ears and feels his heart thump hard in his chest. It matters now, every word matters. 

"I'd like that, I think. Although, if you don't like DS9 I'm afraid this relationship is basically over."  

Colley, trying not to get distracted because one of them finally just called this a relationship, takes a breath and says what is simultaneously the most and least romantic statement of his life. "I have the box set actually." 

He gets kisses as a reward, and when he's dizzy with lust, rewards himself further by sneaking his hands up under Will's t-shirt again, mapping the lines of his back. 

"Do you want me to take it off?" 

"Yeah."  Thought you’d never ask, he thinks but doesn’t say. 

Will leans up a bit and tugs the shirt over his head. He's gorgeous. Colley is shaking a bit. With reverent hands, he traces the fine line of ginger hair down the centre of Will's chest.  

"You too." 

The shift, rolling over so Colley can wriggle out of his own shirt. As soon as it's off, Will hugs him, bare skin to bare skin. Fuck, he thinks to himself, this is what people meant about fireworks. His skin is prickling with how good it feels just to touch one another and it certainly didn't feel like this with anyone else. His mouth is dry. 

"Trousers too," Will says quietly. He looks a bit dumbstruck, the way Colley feels. 

They lose the trousers, and the awkwardness of socks, and crawl under the duvet to go back to snogging, not quite getting as far as taking off their pants. Will ends up lying on top of him and he gropes Will's arse through thin cotton, which leaves so much less to the imagination than denim. They rock against each other for a while and Colley slides his hand along Will’s thigh and up, wondering suddenly if they'll fuck one day, if Will wants that, will want Colley to fuck him. 

"I want to see you," he says, and Will obliges, wriggling free of his pants and then lying there, looking somewhere between shy and defiant. 

"Oh fuck you're gorgeous."  

"No," Will says, "you."

Colley shakes his head, because words are becoming a bit unnecessary now. He runs one finger down Will's cock as he did before and watches him inhale sharply. This isn't really a night for showing off, and they've got time. God, it's a wonderful thought. They have time for this, for more evenings, for getting to know one another and trying everything. 

He's got lube in the bedside drawer. He finds it, and slicks his hand. The first time he strokes Will properly he makes a shocked sound and Colley kisses him. 

Soon Will is writhing, bucking against him, with Colley's tongue in his mouth and Colley's hand on his cock and really it doesn't take long before he burrows his face hard against Colley's neck and comes wet against his hand and stomach. 

Will breathes hard for a moment, then stretches his hand out tentatively to run down the length of Colley's cock. Colley lets him do it, trying not to just beg him for more. 

Will pauses, looking thoughtful. 

"You don't have to, you know," Colley says, because even though the thought of stopping makes him ache, if Will wants to wait, he’ll wait.  Not that he’d ever do anything else, but the protectiveness he feels surprises him. 

"I want to."

Will turns out to be a fast learner. Good at reading people anyway, because he works out what makes Colley squirm pretty damn quickly. He leans up on his elbow, resting against Colley and kissing him, and Colley’s thought about this so many times, so many evenings alone, guiltily touching himself and thinking of Will.  Only this is real, and Will is warm and heavy against him and Colley comes embarrassingly quickly under his hands. 

Afterwards Will falls asleep pretty quickly, snuggled up with his head on Colley's shoulder. His hair still smells of smoke and Colley lies there, ignoring his arm going slowly numb, grinning up at the ceiling and feeling like his heart is going to beat it's way right out of his chest from sheer happiness. Will is amazing. Will is his. He looks at Will's face, so relaxed and so close, and it's real and unreal and wonderful. I fucking love you, he thinks. It's too soon to know, definitely too soon to say, but some small part of himself just keeps saying it. I think I love you. I think I love you. He falls asleep thinking it. 


End file.
